I felt nervous and jumpy all day as the hours went by, and there was no sign of him. It was the first time since he’d brought me home with him that I’d gone this long without seeing him or feeling his presence nearby, and it was almost as if I could no longer function. The feeling is not to be envied.

I’d stretched myself awake in his bed sometime this morning, the night’s events coming back to me at once, and looked around for him. The chair was still pulled up next to the ...